Backup Complete Computer - Create an Image Backup

Brink said:

Since you have the OS on the active C now and boot from it, you could mark D as inactive.

Well, we know that C is on there obviosly since it's where Windows is installed.

A is on there since you moved your user accounts to be saved and open from there.

What do you have on B?

Ok, I have marked D as inactive though this is not related to the main issue here.

B contains all my original raw photograhic images (which are backed up on an external drive.)

The curious thing is that before I whipped out my motherboard for repair, the system images I created were only of the order of 64 GB and therefore could not have included everything from my A drive which contains 384 GB. My user account has been on A drive ever since I installed my SSD about a year ago when I moved it from C to A as the SSD was not big enough. The last 64 GB system image was created on Oct 3rd last!

So what is being included in the sytem images I create now which are 438 GB? Now 64 + 384 = 448 which is not far away from 438, so it looks like the clear answer is all my user files from A!

Surely if my user account were on C, all my user files would not be included in a sytem image, just the system files. So why are user files from A being included and not just any system files there might be on A?

So the question remains how to create a system image without including all user files from A?

Maybe I should forget Windows and use the NTI software I mentioned earlier as that produces a 64 GB image (of just C I presume.)

Appologies for the length of my exposition - I hope I make sense.

I moved my entire user account onto A drive following the tutorial in this forum here . So all my libraries, files, documents etc. are on A.

B just contains lots of folders of photos and is independent of everything else.

I am still very puzzled as to why having my user account on A causes user files to be included in a system image whereas having my user account on C does not.

I must have misled you somewhere - B is not included in the system image (it can't be as there is more than another 300 GB there!) Only A and C are included.

Page file is still on C but all temporary files are on A including temporary internet files and all environment varaibles. Could this be the cause of the problem?

The reason I moved all temp files to A from C was following documented advice (reliable?) about reducing the number of writes to my SSD. I could try moving them back to C to see what then occurs.

I tried moving all temp files back to C but this made no difference so I guess you are correct in saying that I will have to move my user account back to C to avoid this issue. May try this when I can find the time.

Hope this doesn't sound cheeky (it's not meant to!) but why did you create a tutorial showing how to move a user account when you appear not to approve of this?

Out of interest I made a system image using NTI Backup Now EZ which was only 64GB and took about 5 mins to create. I used this image to do a system restore and it worked just fine, again in about 5 mins. Clearly this software is not copying my user files as they are 370+ GB. At the moment this seems to be my best bet.

Thanks for all your help and advice.

If I do move my user account back to C, what's the best approach as my SSD is only 120 GB and too small for all my user files?

Do I

1. move the contents My Documents, My Pictures etc first so the folders are empty
2. move my account to C
3. change the location of My Documents etc. to A?
4. copy the contents back again

or is there a quicker way forward?